Research and Academic Publications
My research interests to this point are primarily are in the field of loss and grieving and in maternal studies. Within grief studies I have a particular interest in individuals' responses to non-death losses and the disenfranchised grief that often accompanies them. My doctoral research focussed on the experience of 'circumstantially childless women'; women who saw themselves as having children but find themselves in their late 30s or early 40s without having done so, for (at least initially) social rather than biological reasons.
I have a particular interest in qualitative psychosocial research methods. As a researcher with a background and training in counselling I am interested in the capacity for social science research to capture aspects of participants’ stories that are not only expressed in words but also encompass explorations of ‘voice’ that take account of non-linguistic elements such as tears, laughter, hesitations, repetitions and so forth. In order to explore these qualities, in my doctoral study I developed a participant-produced drawing method that I adapted from work I have previously used in my counselling and education work. The method has a lot of potential, and I am keen to develop it in further projects.
Fantasy and loss in circumstantial childlessness PhD thesis in Sociology. Tonkin, 2014, University of Canterbury, NZ.
Haunted by a 'Present Absence' Studies in the Maternal,4(1), 2012
Making sense of loss: The disenfranchised grief of women who are 'contingently childless' Journal of the Motherhood Initiative for Research and Community Involvement, 1(2)2010
I have a particular interest in qualitative psychosocial research methods. As a researcher with a background and training in counselling I am interested in the capacity for social science research to capture aspects of participants’ stories that are not only expressed in words but also encompass explorations of ‘voice’ that take account of non-linguistic elements such as tears, laughter, hesitations, repetitions and so forth. In order to explore these qualities, in my doctoral study I developed a participant-produced drawing method that I adapted from work I have previously used in my counselling and education work. The method has a lot of potential, and I am keen to develop it in further projects.
Fantasy and loss in circumstantial childlessness PhD thesis in Sociology. Tonkin, 2014, University of Canterbury, NZ.
Haunted by a 'Present Absence' Studies in the Maternal,4(1), 2012
Making sense of loss: The disenfranchised grief of women who are 'contingently childless' Journal of the Motherhood Initiative for Research and Community Involvement, 1(2)2010
